Early deficit didn't deflate Bruins in Game 1

James van Riemsdyk (21) scored a power-play goal
in the opening minutes of Game 1 for the Leafs. (Getty Images)

While it’d be a stretch to say literally nothing has gone
right for the Boston Bruins over the past calendar month, the truth
isn’t too far short of that. Their decidedly poor finish to
the regular season – a 2-5-2 run to close out the year with
their only victories coming against the cellar dwellers of the
conference – left many feeling bleak about their chances in
the 2013 playoffs.

But with the start of the second season officially upon us on
Wednesday night, the slate wiped clean, the rocky, regular-season
conclusion now in the rearview mirror, hope felt renewed.

Unfortunately said hope was temporarily dashed at the 1:54 mark
of Game 1, when James van Riemsdyk scored a power-play goal to give
the Maple Leafs a 1-0 lead and the fans on hand a TD Garden as good
a reason as any to slump in their chairs, put their heads in their
hands and ponder just what kind of misery they might be in for.

“We talked a lot about turning the page on how the season
ended and the way we were playing the last 10 games. Them getting
that first goal on the power play, 15 seconds into the power play,
kind of sucked the life out of the crowd,” Bruins winger
Milan Lucic said, “but we knew that we at least needed to
score one goal to win the game and we stayed focused.”

Asked what being scored on so early does for a team’s
emotions after being so amped up for the start of the playoffs,
defenseman Andrew Ference said the B’s didn’t get
rattled.

“You know, it’s a power play and they definitely
converted. They did a good job and they earned it,” said
Ference. “You just have to go get the next shift and turn the
page. You’re going to get scored on in the playoffs.
There’s going to be chances, there’s going to be
mistakes, there’s going to be goals.

“You just deal with it and move on. The onus is on the
next guys that go out there to do a good job.”

The Bruins responded by outshooting the Leafs 15-5 over the
final 18:06 of play in the opening frame.

With 3:40 to go in the first period, Wade Redden slapped home a
feed from fourth-line center Greg Campbell to tie things up. Redden
sparking the offense again in the closing seconds of the frame with
a shot that got redirected by Nathan Horton past James Reimer,
giving the Bruins a 2-1 lead.

Suddenly, things looked infinitely better than they had just 18
minutes of hockey ago.

“It’s good,” Ference said of the Bruins
turning things around so quickly, “but sometimes it’s
going to take 55 more minutes. It’s definitely nice just to
have the building get excited like that so early and to respond.
You just do all you can to try to get something going. Sometimes it
takes longer, sometimes it’s quick like that.”

After falling behind right out of the gate, the Bruins not only
dominated the remainder of the first period. They completely owned
the Leafs for the rest of the night, outshooting them 40-20 in an
eventual 4-1 victory.

Given the Bruins’ late-season slump and lackluster play
down the stretch, van Riemsdyk’s goal looked like it
could’ve been the rock that started the avalanche. Instead,
it proved to be nothing more than a footnote in a long-awaited,
slump-busting, 60-minute effort for a Boston team that looked a lot
more like the squad that started the year 14-2-2 than the one that
limped to the finish line.

“Even after Toronto scored the first goal, I really felt
that our team was still in good shape and had lots of time,”
coach Claude Julien said. “We just had to stick to the game
plan. You get that [good] feeling sometimes and our players were
really focused tonight.”

The B’s and Leafs will take to the ice for Game 2 at TD
Garden at 7 o’clock Saturday night.